Feeling Better......

I finally got a notebook out and wrote down all those annoying little thoughts that were buzzing around in my head and making it ache. You know, those little thoughts of things you'd like to do, things you ought to do and things you must do. For me, with all the reading I've been doing and ideas I've been pulling from various sources, all those thoughts were just tumbling around in my empty little skull and the 'noise' was driving me crazy! So I finally put them to paper and no more noise. I don't have to worry about them anymore because I have recorded them somewhere. I read somewhere (haha!) that that was a good thing to do with those little things in your mind that keep taking up too much of your precious thought time. WRITE them down! Amazing!

I was also able to sit down with those various written ideas and see how to implement them into our life and schedule. I made a spreadsheet with our daily/weekly schedule and I can now see how it can all fit. And it does! Instead of worrying each day that I ought to be studying something, I now have a set day for studying a certain area, so on that given day, that's the only area I need to think about studying. It's really very liberating and exciting. For example, today is Wednesday, and instead of worrying about whether to read Shakespeare, or work on some quilting, or a book on education, I know that Wednesday is my day to work on languages. I have chosen to learn Sign Language, so today I pulled out my manual and got in at least an hour's worth of work. I even got N to do it with me. We studied how to do numbers, the manual alphabet and some common conversational signs. Previously, I would have just thought about studying something but never would have made a choice as to what that study would be and nothing would have gotten done. Did I mention how exciting this is to me?

I read a quote recently by Emma McKay regarding planning:
"The successful mother must plan. If she does not, and arise early to carry that plan out, the meals are late, the dishes drag, the husband is cross, and the woman flustered. If she does not plan a week ahead, the meals are of a sameness and unappetizing. If she doesn't plan three months ahead, the sewing is not done in time for school. There is discontent and perhaps whining. If she does not plan a year ahead, the gardening, the housecleaning and the education of the children are neglected."
This pretty accurately describes our home atmosphere in the last few years, with the exception of the cross husband. (Thank goodness my husband is ever supportive and helpful) I have struggled with planning and I can attest that the longer we go on flying by the seat of our pants, the more flustered, or, my more favorite word, flustrated, I get. I feel as if all I am doing is treading water and going nowhere quick. I'm hoping that, with a newly aquired desire to be more organized and plan things out, and actually CARRY them out, and a vision of what we're wanting to accomplish in our lives and with our children, I will be able to be a calm, peaceful, happy woman and mother.

To keep my sometimes obsessive side in check, I loved this continuation of the above quote by Sis. McKay:
" There is danger, however, in overdoing planning, in overdoing housework, if by so doing the mother neglects the child. The study of the child, and the proper control of him, to my mind, comes first."
I have found myself at times growling to my kids to "pick that up!" or "Get up here and take care of the '____' you dropped on the floor!", thinking that if I was truly organized and had a plan that my house being spotless was part of that. Also at times I find I have committed myself and my family in too many places and times and we are overscheduled. I think the second quote fits nicely into my idea of a TJEd home. Order, a plan, organization, but never at the expense of the education/teaching/training(control) of the child/ren. Allowing for some sponteneity when inspiration strikes, allowing learning to take place in all its glorious messiness and then all working together when the 'learning' is done to put things away for the next time. I've finally figured out that kids=mess. And that kids+homeschool=BIG mess. But it's OK! I can let that part of organization go for the moment, enjoy the moment with my kids, share something, and when we're done the plan (us working together at specified times) puts that organization right back into place.

In homeschool this week, we've talked about a few changes in our schedule and cemented some ideas we had about when to learn what. The girls have worked on their Topic of the Month projects which they will share with us at the end of January. We started a unit study on SNOW yesterday and will continue with that through next week as well. Today we had Co-op and they had a Spanish lesson, Science, History and Geography and a Book discussion. No cries of boredom this week!